Study: Too Little, Too Much Sleep “Ages” the Brain

Monday, 09 May 2011 | by Pat's Picks

A new study has found that people who don’t get enough sleep suffer from premature aging of the brain—they have the same cognitive function as people three to seven years older. But if you’re thinking you’ll cheat the system by overindulging, think again. The Boston Globe says oversleeping has the same effect on the brain. Researchers found that, after studying a group of adults for five years,  both those who routinely got more than and those who got less than seven to eight hours had a “faster decline in memory, reasoning skills, and vocabulary.” The theory is that those who sleep for longer have “more shallow disrupted sleep instead of the deep restorative kind.”